Hrant Dink Foundation launched the first call for the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant on March 10th, 2014. During the first three rounds, Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant has received over 520 applications from nearly all cities of Turkey and Armenia; 125 individuals from 24 different cities of Turkey and Armenia received the support of the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant and 85 of them have already realised their visits to the neighbouring country. For 72% of the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant beneficiaries, this was the first time visit to the neighbouring country.

Dila Kuş from İstanbul was supported by the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant and visited Dilijan to attend the summer school organised by UWC Dilijan – Dilijan International School of Armenia.“Perhaps my travel played a very little role in the normalisation process. But I believe that, it at least helped the people of both countries to put themselves in the shoes of one another. I think this is one of the most important things to start mutual relations.”

Andrey Araksyants, Arman Khojoyan and Naira Mkrtchyan from Yerevan were supported by the Turkey-Armenia Travel Grant and visited Muğla, on behalf of the CARD Foundation, to make contacts and expand economic ties with business development organisations in Turkey.“We discussed new prospects for business. We very briefly touched upon the political topics too. We had a consensus to look ahead and to contribute to friendly relationship between Turkey and Armenia by creating commercial links.”
To read more about the People Beyond Borders as well as their experiences and impressions about the neighbouring country, please visit the trilingual website Beyond Borders Turkey-Armenia.